Human Rights Watch

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

UN: Urge Chad to Free Child Soldiers

Recruitment and Use of Children Persists Despite Government Commitments

(New York, September 3, 2008) – The Security Council working group on children and armed conflict should urge Chad to take measurable, concrete steps to demobilize children from its armed forces and stop continued recruitment, Human Rights Watch said in a letter today.

On September 5, 2008, the working group will discuss violations of children’s rights in Chad. The working group asked Chad to take steps to bring an end to the recruitment and use of child soldiers a year earlier, in September 2007, but government efforts to comply have been largely ineffective.
“Improving child protection in Chad depends on concrete actions on the ground, beginning with the government’s implementation of the recommendations made by the Security Council,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The Security Council should demand that the Chadian government cease child recruitment and release children from the ranks of the armed forces.”
Far from demobilizing children, the government continues to recruit them. In June 2008, a Human Rights Watch fact-finding mission found recruitment of children into the Chadian National Army (Armée Nationale Tchadienne, or ANT) to be routine in displaced persons sites in eastern Chad, with instances of forced recruitment documented in Gouroukoun camp in the wake of a February, 2008 Chadian rebel invasion. Children in Sudanese refugee camps in eastern Chad are also subject to recruitment, primarily by the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a Sudanese rebel group that receives backing from the Chadian government.
“We expect to see a new round of fighting later this year, and children are sure to be on the front lines,” said Gagnon. “What is far less certain is how many child soldiers will die in combat before peace is reached Chad, and how many have already lost their lives.”